- Annual Fundraiser Update: C’mon, Man … You Know, The Thing!
Hey, everyone …
After a “zero-dollar day,” our annual fundraiser total remains stuck (as of 5am) at $1,093.50.
We’re $1,658 short of our goal — and I’m as tired of hectoring you about money as you are of hearing it. Once we’ve hit the target, I get to shut up about money entirely for the rest of 2026 and mostly for the first nine months of 2027. Have a great day — but first,
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - US regime carries out “defensive” strikes on Iran’s Qeshm island
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“The US carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, an American official said late Monday on the eve of crucial midterm elections, which US President Donald Trump has signaled could mark the start of resumed war with Iran. The strikes, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, appeared to be limited and were not a resumption of major combat operations, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Another official said the strikes were defensive measures against Iranians ‘using surface-to-air missiles against US assets.'” (11/03/26)
- SCOTUS rejects Trump regime’s scheme to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots
Source: The Hill
“The Supreme Court on Monday quickly rejected the Trump administration’s effort to force California officials to set aside 20,000 ballots it claims belong to likely noncitizens and must be investigated. The court’s one-sentence order contained no explanation and had no noted dissents. California and immigration rights groups question the veracity of the administration’s list and say its lawsuit is an attempt to disenfranchise legal voters. The administration raced its claims to the Supreme Court earlier on Monday after California persuaded lower courts that the administration has no legal right to push the state to comply. The administration warned that the clock was running out. All sides agree that ballots can’t be separated once they’re processed, and election officials have already received hundreds of thousands of mail ballots ahead of polls opening on Tuesday.” (11/02/26)
- Ukraine: Russian attack on aid hub kills 29 as US regime announces new peace talks
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russian forces have bombed an aid centre in Ukraine, killing at least 29 people, according to Ukrainian officials, as the United States announced plans for new peace talks on November 10 and 11. The aid centre, at a school in the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region, had been closed to students because the village sits too close to the front line, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday. Instead, it served as a shelter and as a weekly distribution point for aid packages, which residents who remain in the village collected every Monday. … Hours after the attack, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said that delegations from Ukraine and Russia would meet in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, on November 10 and 11.” (11/02/26)
- New York Times, other publications sue web browser Brave over alleged content scraping
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. Separately on Monday, the Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Orlando Sentinel filed a similar lawsuit. Both were brought in federal court in Manhattan. The New York Times, which has also sued OpenAI and Perplexity over similar claims, likens Brave to a ‘supplier, dealer, and distributor of stolen [sic] copyrighted content’ for AI companies.” (11/02/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/york-times-other-outlets-sue-191917731.html
- Poland: Constitutional crisis deepens as Tusk faces accusations of power grab
Source: Fox News
“Friday’s late-night confrontation at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which drew riot police and protesters and prompted President Karol Nawrocki to turn his plane around and return to Warsaw, has reignited a bitter debate over whether Prime Minister Donald Tusk is restoring the rule of law or overstepping constitutional limits. The dispute erupted after the tribunal announced the suspension of its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, a move that supporters of Tusk’s government described as necessary to restore judicial independence, while critics denounced it as an unconstitutional power grab. Marcin Przydacz, the head of the International Policy Bureau in Nawrocki’s office, took to European TV Monday morning denouncing Tusk’s actions, saying, ‘Even lawyers who are close to the Tusk government say that there’s absolutely no legal basis for such behavior.’ The dispute is also triggering diplomatic fallout, with at least three Polish ambassadors resigning in protest.” (11/02/26)
- Yemen: Houthis Advance to Within 80 Kilometers of Aden, Sources Say
Source: US News & World Report
“Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of Aden, the main stronghold and temporary capital of the country’s internationally recognised government, four military sources told Reuters on Monday. The advance brings the Houthis closer to Aden than at any point since the early months of the war in 2015, when they briefly entered the city before being driven out. The latest offensive has opened a volatile new front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, drawing both the Houthis and Saudi Arabia deeper into the regional conflict.” (11/02/26)
- Social Security email praising Trump may violate Hatch Act
Source: The Hill
“Emails sent by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the IRS that praised President Trump may violate the Hatch Act, experts say. ‘Under President Donald J. Trump, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is transforming into a model of excellence, one that meets and exceeds customer expectations for fast, accurate and secure service,’ Frank Bisignano, SSA commissioner and IRS chief executive, wrote in one of the emails, according to The New York Times. The praise of the president just days before Tuesday’s midterms could be a violation of the 1939 law that restricts certain political activities by federal employees.” (11/02/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6187284-ssa-irs-hatch-act-trump/
- India: Shock & anger after eight-year-old beats six-year-old in classroom
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“There has been shock and anger in India over video footage from the CCTV of a school that shows an eight-year-old boy brutally beating a six-year-old girl. The girl, who was seriously injured, is recovering in hospital and is now out of danger but remains traumatised by the assault in Haryana state, her family has said. Police say they have registered a case and the eight-year-old has been sent to a home for juvenile offenders where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation. The school principal and two other teachers have been suspended for suspected negligence, police say. The incident that took place in a government school in Panchkula in the northern state of Haryana on 28 October came to light at the weekend after the CCTV footage went viral on social media.” (11/02/26)
- Judge Throws Out Charges Against Former FBI Officials
Source: New York Times
“A federal magistrate judge threw out charges against two former F.B.I. intelligence officials accused of lying to Congress on Monday, saying that prosecutors had failed in one of their most basic responsibilities: They had not shown there was any probable cause that crimes had been committed in the first place. In an emotional, hourlong address from the bench in Federal District Court in Washington, the magistrate judge, Zia M. Faruqui, said that the case against the former officials — Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides — was a rushed, political prosecution ordered by the White House intended to affect the upcoming midterm elections. Two weeks ago, the administration charged the former officials with falsely minimizing their work on investigations involving Hunter Biden, the son of the former president.” (11/02/26)
- UK: Labour to end cooperation with Greens in 11 councils over “Zionism is racism” acknowledgement
Source: The Guardian
“Labour is to stop cooperating with the Green party in 11 councils across England following an ultimatum for Greens in local government to disown a new policy stating that ‘Zionism is racism’. A statement from Labour said coalitions or other deals with Greens would stop in all local authorities where they had refused to condemn the policy motion passed at their party conference last month, which also called for a single Palestinian state in place of Israel.” (11/02/26)
- Hungary: Wizz Air flight from Luton in emergency landing after bomb threat
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A Wizz Air flight travelling from London Luton Airport to Sofia has been escorted by a Hungarian fighter jet to Budapest after a mid-air bomb threat. The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International. Authorities there ‘carried out the necessary security checks on the aircraft and passengers’, a spokesperson for Wizz Air said. The airline later confirmed an inspection had been ‘completed and nothing was found’, adding that the plane would depart again shortly. Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendis confirmed his country provided the fighter jet to escort the flight. According to flight tracking website FlightAware, Wizz Air flight 4302 departed Luton at 08:33 GMT and was due to arrive in the Bulgarian capital at 13:25 local time (11:25 GMT).” (11/02/26)
- SpaceX Reportedly Eyes Boost Mobile Deal to Challenge Wireless Giants
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX, Financials), the rocket and satellite business, is apparently in discussions to purchase Boost Mobile from EchoStar or have access to its wireless network.The talks are part of SpaceX’s drive to build out a wider mobile service through Starlink Mobile. A partnership may offer SpaceX access to terrestrial infrastructure that complements its satellite constellation, creating a hybrid network that can compete more directly with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.Today, Boost Mobile has a network agreement with AT&T and T-Mobile, which might be a valuable stepping stone for SpaceX as it grows beyond satellite communication.” (11/02/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/spacex-reportedly-eyes-boost-mobile-140529359.html
- Uganda: Regime Says It Has Started Withdrawing Troops From Somalia
Source: US News & World Report
‘Uganda said on Monday it had begun withdrawing its troops from Somalia as part of a phased drawdown that will end an almost two-decade deployment helping Mogadishu fight the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency. Uganda has about 4,500 troops deployed in Somalia under the African Union-mandated AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), according to state media, though it is unclear how many additional forces are deployed under a separate bilateral arrangement.” (11/02/26)
- More grocery stores in Europe report fridge and freezer temperature spikes as apparent cyberattacks continue
Source: CBS News
“Grocery store chains in at least three European countries reported unexpected temperature spikes Monday in refrigerators and freezers that ruined food — the second time in less than a month that similar incidents have raised concerns about cyberattacks on increasingly interlinked infrastructure. Netherlands-based food retailer Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium both said an IT incident overnight had sent temperatures inside fridges and freezers in dozens of their stores in Belgium and Luxembourg soaring, while Swedish chains ICA and Coop reported similar spikes, with one outlet explicitly blaming a cyberattack, according to the Reuters news agency. The incidents come less than three weeks after several French supermarket chains said they were hit by a cyberattack that sent refrigerator temperatures surging as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit in hundreds of outlets.” (11/02/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/europe-grocery-store-refrigerator-freezer-cyberattack-hack-food-wasted/
- Mamdani threatens to sue Trump regime over ICE gang’s “unlawful commandeering” of NYC-owned properties for raids
Source: New York Post
“Mayor Zohran Mamdani threatened Monday to haul the Trump administration to court if ICE doesn’t stop its ‘unlawful commandeering’ of city-owned property during immigration operations. Hizzoner, in a letter to US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, warned that if the feds continued to park immigration vehicles in city parking lots, the Big Apple will haul them to court. ‘ICE has not secured any authorization from the City to use these lots for immigration enforcement. To be clear: the City does not authorize ICE using its property in this manner,’ the missive reads.” (11/02/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/11/02/us-news/mamdani-threatens-to-sue-trump-admin-over-ice/
- Bangladesh garment factories disrupted as protests continue for third day
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Hundreds of garment factories in Bangladesh are facing disruptions as worker protests over low pay and the rising cost of living rock the country’s industrial hubs. There was a heavy police presence in the Mirpur industrial area of Dhaka on Monday and reports of protests taking place for the third day in the Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur areas, Al Jazeera’a Tanvir Chowdhury reported from the capital. About 500 factories were temporarily shuttered after the protests began on Saturday. Thousands of workers have taken to the streets, facing tear gas and sound grenades from police.” (11/02/26)
- Fake nuclear warnings issued after Ukrainian and Russian air alert apps hacked
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ukraine and Russia have both said air alert apps were hacked on Sunday night after fake messages warning of attacks, including nuclear, were sent to users. Ukraine’s widely used app sent red-level air raid warnings across the country, with additional warnings of radiation, chemical attacks, and street fighting sent to some residents in areas including Kyiv. A few hours later, Russian authorities said a similar app was hacked after fake alerts, some of which contained foul language, were triggered. It was unclear who was behind the cyberattacks or whether the two incidents were connected.” (11/02/26)
- Judge says xAI must face NAACP lawsuit on data center pollution
Source: Engadget
“A federal judge’s latest ruling has denied xAI’s request to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges its data center campus in Memphis, Tennessee is running turbines without proper permits and violating the Clean Air Act. The decision, from US District Judge Debra M. Brown, allows the lawsuit, which was filed by the NAACP, to move forward. The organization filed its legal action against xAI in April, accusing the company that’s now known as SpaceXSI of using unpermitted methane gas turbines to power data centers in the Memphis area.” (11/01/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2303462/judge-says-xai-must-face-naacp-lawsuit-on-data-center-pollution/
- MA: Lindsay Clancy returns to court in bid to dismiss charges
Source: SFGate
“Lindsay Clancy returned to court Monday in a bid to dismiss the charges that she murdered her three young children. The hearing Monday was the second time the Massachusetts mother has been in court since her trial ended with a deadlocked jury in September after jurors were unable to agree on a verdict. Its focus was a motion from the defense to dismiss the charges on double jeopardy grounds. The proceedings grew heated as defense attorney Kevin Reddington urged the judge to investigate the lone holdout juror, questioning his cell phone use during jury deliberations and whether he had been truthful during jury selection. Judge William Sullivan repeatedly intervened as Reddington publicly identified the juror and raised allegations involving potentially confidential information.” (11/02/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/lindsay-clancy-returns-to-court-in-a-bid-to-22506054.php
- Make the Winners Pay
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“Imagine a law called the Voter Accountability Act. Or call it the Max Tax, if you like. If a party wins control of government and runs a deficit, everyone who voted for it pays 10 percent more in income taxes during deficit years. If the budget balances, rates stay normal. Voters on the losing side get a 10 percent discount on their tax bills. Non-voters pay the ordinary rate. So described, the Max Tax sounds like justice ringing the doorbell. Whoever installs the government gets the invoice. In other words, if you really want things done your way, then you have to pay for it. I like the idea. But I also know it would probably create a clusterf—. Still, the ways it might fail tell us as much about the absurdity of our current system as they do about the proposal itself.” (11/02/26)
- Repugnant Markets
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“Conservatives are well known for launching moral crusades. Because they think they have an ally in the White House, some of them are now openly calling for the federal government to ban pornography. But instead of advocating for new legislation to combat pornography, they maintain that obscenity laws still exist on the federal and state levels and should therefore be used against pornography. The question here is not whether viewing pornography is acceptable, good, useful, or beneficial, or whether viewing pornography is bad, immoral, harmful, or sinful. The question at issue is simply this: Should government at some level, for whatever reason, seek to ban some or all pornography?” (11/02/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/repugnant-markets/
- AI, Empathy, and Entrepreneurship: Could Robot Labor Make the Economy More Human?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Per Bylund“As machines take over routine tasks, work might actually become less robotic. When production is cheap, people can be much more entrepreneurial — and more personal.” (11/02/26)
- The Next Congress Must Punish Trump’s Attempted Election Steal to Avert a Failed Republic
Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig“In 2020, Trump tried to steal a presidential election. This year, he is trying to steal Congress. Once again, it won’t work. Despite his best efforts, he does not have a sufficiently consolidated authoritarian regime, centralized federal control, or enough practical political support to pull it off. But the ineptitude of the attempt should not excuse the gravity of the crime. The president of the United States is attempting, in plain public view and with every power at his disposal, to destroy our democratic republic. He has said as much all year. … When the danger passes, there will be a strong pull to file this away with everything else he tried that didn’t pan out. The courts held, the counties did their jobs, the voters showed up. The country moves on. But the law does not treat failure as an excuse.” (11/02/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-next-congress-must-punish-trumps
- The Trump Administration Continues to Meddle in the Election
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“The federal government has a legitimate interest in preventing unlawful voting. Noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections, and allegations of deliberate election fraud should be investigated. Nobody should have to abandon those principles to recognize the serious problems with what the administration is doing. Investigations require evidence, and removing voters or refusing to count their ballots requires considerably more than an allegation generated by matching names against government databases. The administration’s actions have repeatedly failed to satisfy those requirements. Worse, some of its demands would have imposed consequences on eligible voters before anyone could determine whether they had done anything wrong.” (11/02/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/the-trump-administration-continues
- The five words that explain this election better than any commercial
Source: Fox News
by Lee Hartley Carter“Eleven billion dollars…. Actually, more than that. Political advertising spending and reservations have now exceeded $11.6 billion, making this the most expensive election cycle for political advertising in American history. For that kind of money, you’d think somebody might have figured out how to make groceries cheaper. Instead, Americans have endured months of attack ads, apocalyptic warnings and politicians insisting that civilization itself is on the ballot. Again. As a researcher, I’ve spent much of this year studying what Americans believe, what frustrates them and, perhaps most importantly, what might motivate them to vote. And I’ve become convinced that five words explain this election better than a thousand campaign commercials. Affordability. Socialism. Corruption. Trump. Turnout. Each tells us something about the American electorate. Together, they reveal something neither party should find particularly comforting. Americans may be less interested in voting for somebody than in voting against something.” (11/02/26)
- The Ultimate War On Terror Movie
Source: The Realist Review
“Onslaught, the 2026 film from director Adam Wingard, did not do particularly well at the box office or with reviewers. Dropping a few months ago to mostly middling reviews and an underwhelming box office performance, it was ignored by much of the public and dismissed by many critics. Having finally gotten around to seeing it, however, I have to vociferously disagree with what appears to be the general consensus as it exists thus far. Onslaught rocks. Not just as a stand-alone film that plays homage to the classics of John Carpenter, but, more importantly, it has something to say that is far more in line with the reality of post-War on Terror America than any number of self-serious, overwrought, Meryl Streep Starring, prestige cinema beloved by the NPR set ever could.” (11/02/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-war-on-terror-movie
- Independent Digital Media Is Not a Privilege Governments Can Revoke: The Fight to Save Egypt’s Mada Masr
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jillian C York“On November 11, Lina Attalah, founder and editor-in-chief of the independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, will face trial for the second time in just two weeks. This time, she faces charges of spreading false news, an accusation that has become one of the Egyptian government’s most frequently used tools for prosecuting journalists. … Governments seeking to control the flow of information increasingly rely on a combination of legal harassment, financial pressure, criminal prosecution, and restrictions on the infrastructure that makes independent publishing possible. Egypt’s media licensing regime is a particularly troubling example.” (11/02/26)
- United we stand, divided we vote
Source: New York Post
by Cindy Adams“APOLOGIES for whoever dislikes me after this column. Praise The Big Man Upstairs for this blessed country where we’re permitted to think for ourselves. Love, hate or shrug — we’re not jailed or tortured. We can think, love or even demean the United States of America. Try that in Russia, China or Cuba. So I beg forgiveness, right now, for what I want to say. Don’t all love Donald? OK. But specialize in beauts who were not Donald? Biden? Whose son specialized in math? Previous Hizzoner whose wife possibly specialized in arithmetic? A back-aways married governor who had bedroom affairs with his knee socks still on? Also Barack, who finally opened his mouth to babble BS. So elect who?” (11/01/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/11/01/opinion/united-we-stand-divided-we-vote/
- Anthropic’s moat is Claude
Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith“Anthropic recently filed for IPO. At an estimated $1.5 to $2 trillion, it will be one of the biggest IPOs of all time, rivaling SpaceX, and possibly the biggest. For reference, Facebook’s valuation when it had its blockbuster IPO in 2012 was $104 billion, and Google’s valuation in 2004 was $23 billion. Anthropic will instantly become one of the world’s most valuable companies — Google itself is now worth $3.4 trillion, and Nvidia and Apple are both worth around $5 trillion. This naturally has a lot of people asking: What’s the upside to buying Anthropic?” (11/02/26)
- The Aluminum Industry’s New Tariff Study Argues Against Itself
Source: Cato Institute
by Clark Packard & Alfredo Carrillo Obregon“Recently, the American Primary Aluminum Association issued a report claiming as proof that the 50 percent Section 232 ‘national security’ tariffs should stay in place. Some of the report withstands scrutiny. High-purity aluminum matters for military hardware, and the report notes that no smelter in the United States or any NATO country can make it (p. 2). Aluminum also makes up a small share of costs for most finished goods, so the per-unit price effects are relatively modest. The defensible version of this argument is a very narrow, national security case. Yet the report does not make the case. Three problems stand out.” (11/02/26)
https://www.cato.org/blog/aluminum-industrys-new-tariff-study-argues-against-itself
- Alaska’s Decoy Scandal Brings Back the Usual Suspects for Shady Election Tactics
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley“Marc Elias is back. The notorious Democratic lawyer who played a critical role in the 2016 Russia hoax is again in the news. His law firm has been identified by the New York Times as part of the expanding scandal involving Democratic effort to confuse voters in Alaska with a decoy candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan. For those familiar with Elias’s checkered history, this is a case of rounding up the usual suspects. The scandal involving Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has quickly snowballed this week. A New York Times blockbuster investigative report quotes former staff who claim she knew of a cynical effort by her own campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to confuse voters by recruiting and fielding a decoy ‘Dan Sullivan’ candidate in the race against incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-AK). State and federal investigations are now unfolding, with dozens of federal subpoenas raining down on Alaska.” (11/02/26)
- The West’s Free Speech Consensus Is Fracturing
Source: The Daily Economy
by Anne Struffman“European crackdowns on citizen speech is provoking Washington to respond. Will free expression become a transatlantic fault line?” (11/02/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-wests-free-speech-consensus-is-fracturing/
- State Governments Burden Residents With Growing Debt Just Like the Feds
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“California’s state government, which has run up $11,511 in debt per resident, is asking voters to approve more billions of dollars in bonds, to be paid back by taxpayers at a later date. The cost of carrying that extra debt will be added to the roughly $6 billion the state pays each year to service bonds issued in the past. But the Golden State isn’t the most debt-burdened state in the country. Connecticut and New Jersey are the most heavily burdened per capita, while Utah carries the least debt per person. The reasons for running up those obligations vary, but the heavier the load, the more taxpayers will have to carry in the years to come.” (11/02/26)
- The Most Under-Discussed Political Reality Of Our Time
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“The most significant political reality of our time is also the most under-discussed political reality, and it can be summed up as follows: There are a whole lot more of us than there are of them, and we can force revolutionary change whenever we want. That’s it. There are a whole lot more ordinary people suffering under the status quo system of capitalism, imperialism, militarism and authoritarianism than there are people benefiting from it, and we can use the power of our numbers to overthrow that system whenever we decide to. It’s self-evident, and so simple that you can sum it up in a single sentence. But because our society is so deeply indoctrinated and mind-controlled, it simply doesn’t show up in the normal every day conversations people have about politics and the problems we face as a society today.” (11/02/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/11/02/the-most-under-discussed-political-reality-of-our-time/
- We can’t get money out of politics, but we can give legislators time to govern
Source: hypertext
by Matt Grossman“2026 will be the most expensive midterm election ever, with nearly $11 billion spent just on political advertising. Americans don’t like the scale of the spending and fear that big-money contributors will buy elections or legislation. Notwithstanding these concerns, campaign finance reformers have been unable to stem the flow of lucre into our politics, especially with courts repeatedly siding with the campaign spenders. But perhaps we are focused on the wrong harms from money in politics and, as a result, losing sight of the reforms that can really make a difference. ” (11/02/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/we-cant-get-money-out-of-politics
- After insulting Mao Zedong, some offer groveling apologies to protect the bottom line. Others suffer in prison.
Source: Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin“On a cursory glance, the latest controversy over French soccer star Kylian Mbappé’s remark about Mao Zedong, and the string of obsequious apologies that followed it, might seem like just that: an ideological controversy, a fight over claims of offensive speech, or an absurd blip in the endless string of culture wars. But treating this as another eye-roll-inducing dustup would be a mistake. That’s because the fallout from Mbappé’s mild comment offers an insightful window into one of the most effective and widespread censorship campaigns today: the pervasive influence over how anyone, anywhere talks about China’s sensitive political issues. Authoritarians control how they are spoken about in life. And, apparently, even in death.” (11/02/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/after-insulting-mao-zedong-some-offer
- Jonathan Turley Is Wrong on Jury Nullification
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“I have the utmost respect for law professor Jonathan Turley. My admiration for him is reflected by the fact that he has been a speaker at at least two Future of Freedom Foundation conferences. However, I completely disagree with his critique of the concept of jury nullification, which he presented in an article this week entitled, ‘You Have This Superpower,’ which appeared on Turley’s website Res Ipsa Loquitur. Turley maintains that jury nullification constitutes an ‘assault on the integrity of our courts … a direct assault on the very foundation of the American court system.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. In actuality, as the British people and our American ancestors understood so well, jury nullification, which is an inherent part of the jury system, is a protection against the tyranny of one’s own government.” (11/02/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/11/02/jonathan-turley-is-wrong-on-jury-nullification/
- Republicans Have Earned a Rout
Source: The Bulwark
by Cathy Young“My own hopes for what Democrats will (and will not) do after Tuesday undoubtedly differ greatly from those of most progressives—who, it should be noted, have not ‘taken over’ the party nearly as much as alarming narratives on the right suggest. But on the election itself, I join both progressives and liberals in wishing for a decisive result. I’m glad to note that some very strong critics of the left share that wish as well—from Andrew Sullivan (‘vote for anyone other than a Republican. … We need to send a deafening message’) to Peggy Noonan (‘Let it be a clear and obvious rebuke—a rejection, a rebellion, a rout’).” (11/02/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/republicans-have-earned-a-rout-2026-midterms-blue-wave
- Did Davy Crockett & Jim Bowie Die at the Alamo to Put James Talarico in the Senate?
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“‘Back in 1836, Houston said to Travis, / ‘Get some volunteers and go, / fortify the Alamo.’ / Well, the men came from Texas, / and from old Tennessee, / And they joined up with Travis, / Just to fight for the right to be free’ … That’s what TEXANS used to believe. And many of us, hopefully most of us, still do. But I’ll bet my last bottom dollar that James Talarico and his Texas Democrats don’t believe it. The question that forms the title of this article is absolutely ridiculous, of course — ridiculous to think that great men like Crockett, Bowie, William Travis, Almaron Dickenson, and approximately 180 other men, who fought and died for freedom against a corrupt military dictatorship from a country that’s now trying to overrun Texas again, it is impossible to think that such men would have given their lives for a … traitor, like James Talarico.” (11/02/26)
- Governing Games
Source: Law & Liberty
by Neal McCluskey“How do we know how much a nation values athleticism? Spectacle? Hate for the college down the road and its insufferable student body? For the free-marketeer, the answer might be ‘profit.’ Whatever universities can charge for tickets, broadcast rights, merchandise, stadium beer, and more, balanced by what athletes are willing to play for and fans to pay, yields what college sports is worth. But college athletics might involve goods that transcend profit and loss: thrill of victory and agony of defeat, ‘nonrevenue’ sports we often overlook but love during the Olympics, amateurism, and more. We are also far from a free market in college sports because government is deeply involved, including through state universities and antitrust law.” (11/02/26)
- VAERS and VSAFE: The “Worst Case Scenario” Twice
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Leland Lehrman“The United States began vaccinating against Covid-19 on 14 December 2020. Two CDC programs were designed and paid to catch any harm that clinical trials had missed. VAERS takes reports from doctors, patients and manufacturers. V-safe sends vaccinated people text messages asking how they feel. Here we follow the paper trail of those two systems from the Christmas 2020 rollout into 2022. The bottom line: The government’s ‘worst case’ for amount of Covid vaccine injury reports assumed 1,000 reports a day. For fourteen months it was double that. For some of those months, it was triple.” (11/02/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/vaers-and-vsafe-the-worst-case-scenario-twice/
- Trump Is Dealing With a Different North Korea
Source: Antiwar.com
by Kyle Anzalone“With all of President Donald Trump’s wars – Iran, Yemen, Ukraine, Nigeria, Somalia, Venezuela, and cartels – it’s easy to lose track of what is happening on the Korean Peninsula. However, since Trump returned to the White House, a series of developments on the Korean Peninsula have increased the risk that a relatively minor border incident could escalate into a much larger conflict. The first, and potentially most important, was a policy shift by Pyongyang that began before Trump returned to the White House. North Korea abandoned its longstanding goal of reunification with South Korea, moving toward treating the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) as an international border.” (11/02/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/kyle_anzalone/2026/11/01/trump-is-dealing-with-a-different-north-korea/
- Entrepreneurship in Five Words
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“The future’s inherent uncertainty is an absolute we face every moment of our lives, but how people deal with it varies as widely as the weather. No one can guarantee tomorrow but we all have to decide what to do today. It is from this condition that entrepreneurship arises.” (11/02/26)
- Are You Tired of Winning Yet?
Source: Liberal Currents
by Kiran Pfitzner“The Trump administration has chosen to forget that airpower provides no way to force a favorable peace.” (11/02/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/are-you-tired-of-winning-yet/
- The People’s Tool: 2026 Ballot Measures Are Demands for Real Change
Source: Common Dreams
by Chris Melody Fields Figueredo“Heading into Tuesday’s midterm elections, the ballot measure landscape reveals a struggle over whether government will respond to people’s needs—and whether communities will retain the power to act through direct democracy when it does not. Economic anxiety, contested rights, and efforts to restrict direct democracy are converging around questions that reach beyond any individual proposal: Who benefits from policy change? Whose priorities will guide government? And what happens when elected officials advance an agenda their constituents reject? Recent elections suggest that voters are responding to more than a disconnect between their priorities and those of elected officials: they reveal a willingness to take power into their own hands when government fails to deliver.” (11/02/26)
- Government to Blame for Higher Prices
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jonathan Small“Voter concerns about affordability have been a major theme in political races, and understandably so. However, what is often unsaid is that many government policies are to blame for continued high prices. A panel of experts recently made that painfully clear to Oklahoma state lawmakers.” (11/02/26)
https://fee.org/articles/government-to-blame-for-higher-prices/
- The Media Whip Up Another Round of “Fascism” Fears for the Midterms
Source: The American Conservative
by Peter Van Buren“People have become hysterical, and this hysteria clouds their judgment even as it fills their wallets. Politics today can sound like a thriller novel in which institutions collapse spectacularly on page one to set the story in motion. Every headline not supporting your own beliefs becomes evidence ‘democracy is dying.’ It is a helluva lead-in to the midterms. So are they right? Is it 1930s Germany out there? No.” (11/02/26)
- Madison’s Toleration
Source: Law & Liberty
by Tyler Syck“Madison was a clear and hard-boiled proponent of a diverse, plural society.” (11/02/26)
- Is Darline Graham the canary in coal mine for midterm war backlash?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter“Solid red South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democratic senator this century. But in the race between Republican. Darline Graham and her Democratic challenger, it’s now a draw. The New York Times called the race a toss-up on Wednesday, with Graham, the sister of the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Democrat Annie Andrews both receiving 48% in their latest poll. Fox News made the same call on Thursday. Democratic Senate candidates in the state don’t tie Republicans. But against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s war and escalating energy and food prices, all bets appear to be off.” (11/02/26)
- Midterm Election Incoherences, Misadventures & Paradoxes
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson“In June 2022, the price of gasoline topped $5 a gallon and stayed around $4 a gallon through October, on the eve of the midterms. It is currently about $4.30. The inflation rate in 2022 hit a 40-year high of 9.1 percent, and would average 5.1 percent over Joe Biden’s four-year tenure. The 2026 inflation rate is estimated to be about 3.5 percent and, over the first two years of the second Trump administration, will likely average around 3 percent. GDP for the third quarter of 2026 is higher than it was in the same quarter of 2022. The poverty rate is now lower and the annual family income higher than in November 2022. Yet we are told that gas prices and inflation are at record levels and will doom the Republicans, even though similar economic data did not harm Democrats all that much in the 2022 midterms.” (11/02/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/11/02/midterm-election-incoherences-misadventures-and-paradoxes/
- Republicans Are As Socialist As Democrats
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem“While a unified Democratic government has tended to see the fastest growth in government spending since World War II, government grows faster overall under Republican presidents than Democratic ones. And the only real decreases in the size of government spending happened during those six years where there were Democratic presidents and Republican majorities in Congress, first with the post-war build-down under Harry Truman (1947-48), and next after modest cut-backs from the bloated spending of the financial and COVID crises under Barack Obama (2009-10) and Donald Trump (2020), respectively.” (11/02/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/republicans-are-as-socialist-as-democrats
- My Journey to the Center of America’s Political Spam Text Hell
Source: Wired
by Dhruv Mehrotra“I’ve gotten nearly 2,000 campaign fundraising texts that were meant for someone else. I tried to find out why—and uncovered a labyrinth of politicians, data brokers, and shady tactics.” (11/02/26)
- Trump Is Using a Trade Law Relic to Illegally Punish Canada
Source: The Dispatch
by Ilya Somin“Courts have already ruled against two avenues President Donald Trump used to impose his tariff regime. That hasn’t stopped his efforts to attempt to deploy obscure or outdated trade law provisions to justify new import levies. His latest tool is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, the notorious legislation that gravely exacerbated the Great Depression. … Even if Section 338 is still operative, Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods violate its requirements.” (11/02/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-canada-tariffs-section-338-lawsuit/
- My Life in a Skull of Ghosts: Confessions of a Traumagenic Tulpamancer
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid“Agnes was who I was on the inside before the abuse, before being me became just too painful to consciously bare, and she has haunted me throughout my life, with terrifying flashbacks and a deep sense of guilt over some confusing notion that I had left something or someone behind. For a long time, I didn’t know what she was. I would get repeated waking visions of a little girl in pigtails and a black velvet party dress smashing all the stained-glass windows in my church. I took to calling her the little girl with the hammer, but it was only when I gave her the name Agnes and decided to listen to what she had to say that she began talking back to me …” (11/01/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/11/my-life-in-skull-of-ghosts-confessions.html
- Reason Roundtable, 11/02/26
Source: Reason
“What Do Libertarians Have To Gain From the Midterms?” (11/02/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/11/02/what-do-libertarians-have-to-gain-from-the-midterms/
- Rising, 11/02/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens endorsing Republican Mike Rogers in his Senate race against Abdul El-Sayed.” (11/02/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/02/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Will Trump Really Become ‘Mr. Veto’ if Democrats Take Congress?” (11/02/26)
- EconTalk, 11/02/26
Source: EconTalk
“Revisiting the China Shock (with Joseph Francis).” (11/02/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/revisiting-the-china-shock-with-joseph-francis/
- SolutionsWatch, 11/02/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“Stopping the War Machine.” (11/02/26)
https://corbettreport.com/stopping-the-war-machine-solutionswatch/
- What Then Must We Do?, 11/02/26
Source: Bretigne Shaffer
“Has MAHA Disarmed the Medical-Freedom Movement? A conversation with Jeremy Hammond.” (11/02/26)
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 11/01/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“The Midterm DOJ Hunger Games Part 6 – US v. Alaska.” (11/01/26)
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 11/02/26
Source: Politico
“Haley Stevens caps a bizarre midterm cycle.” (11/02/26)
- Dave Benner on The Kyle Anzalone Show
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Dave Benner from Liberty Vault joins us for a blunt end-of-week rundown on the war in Iran, the midterm backlash building around it, and why the administration’s promise that it won’t become a forever war is landing with a thud for a lot of voters.” (11/01/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/02/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Fury Erupts as GOP Leaks About His Rallies Take Humiliating Turn.” (11/02/260
https://newrepublic.com/article/217423/trump-fury-erupts-gop-leaks-rallies-take-humiliating-turn
- Andrew Day on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews Andrew Day from The American Conservative about what’s happening with the Iran war.” (11/01/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/10-30-26-andrew-day-on-the-iran-war-eight-months-in/
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 11/02/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Build More Houses, Have More Kids | Interview: Tim Carney.” (11/02/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/build-more-houses-have-more-kids-interview-tim-carney/
- Politics Politics Politics, 11/01/26
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Michigan SHOCKER: Haley Stevens Endorses Mike Rogers.” (11/01/260
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/michigan-shocker-haley-stevens-endorses
- The Permanent Questions, 11/01/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Is Radicalism the Answer?” (11/01/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/11/is-radicalism-the-answer/689201/
- Free Talk Live, 11/01/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Sarah from New Mexico says there’s going to be 74 polling locations just in her county! :: Dave in CO tells us about a NH Journal journalist kicked out of a NH Democrat meeting, says he should have gotten video :: Psychedelic nose spray beats depression :: Drama on what actress Sophia Bush said on Call Her Daddy :: Sydney Sweeney hot or ugly? :: Did Trump shoot down a private plane? :: NY to regulate how AI chatbots interact with children :: 2026-11-01 :: Hosts: Bonnie, Riley O’Bill, Rich E Rich.” (11/01/26)
- Neon Liberalism, episode 97
Source: Liberal Currents
“How the Wheels Came Off: China’s Economic Malaise.” (11/02/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/01/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Iran Says Trump Won’t ‘Dictate’ Length of Renewed War, Syria Considers Joining Mecca Pact, and More.” (11/01/26)
- Unattended Baggage, episode 361
Source: Unattended Baggage
“It’s election day … again … maybe.” (10/31/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-361-its-election-dayagainmaybe
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/31/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“The Midterm DOJ Hunger Games Part 4 – US v. Alaska.” (10/31/26)
- Romina Boccia on Freedom Works with Paul Molloy
Source: Freedom Works
“The Unseen Factor Driving Social Security Problems.” (10/31/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-10-31_zfw10262026.mp3